HP averts nine day strike in pensions and pay dispute

HP has agreed a confidential deal on pay and pensions with trade unions, averting nine strike days by a large number of UK customer services engineers.

Leo King
January 14, 2010

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HP has agreed a confidential deal on pay and pensions with trade unions, averting nine strike days by a large number of UK customer services engineers.

Computerworld UK understands the new agreement adresses some of the employee concerns around the potential scrapping of a £2,000 performance bonus scheme and a final salary pension. But neither HP nor the Unite trade union gave details of the discussions, and it is not known what decisions on benefits were made.

The employees involved, who work remotely, were transferred on 1 November into the HP CDS business that was formed from the acquisition of Synstar in 2004.

They initially held a strike on 7 December. But further action due on Monday and Tuesday this week was cancelled, after the agreement was reached. The staff had also planned to strike on 1 and 2 February, and 22 to 26 February, but this will no longer happen.

HP said today it “respects” the decision of staff who went on strike and that it “will continue to maintain a dialogue” with the unions. Unite had accused it of failing to negotiate, and of taking advantage of weaknesses in employment legislation to remove the benefits.